Man shot dead in loyalist feud

A simmering feud between rival factions of the loyalist paramilitary group, the Ulster Defence Association, was yesterday believed to have claimed its first fatality when a man was shot dead in north Belfast.

The victim, Jonathan Stewart, 22, was standing with another man in the kitchen of a house in Manor Street just before 7.30am when a gunman forced his way in through the front door.

In what the senior police officer described an an "execution", the gunman singled out Mr Stewart, who did not live at the house, and shot him several times.

Security and loyalist sources immediately linked the killing to the feud between Johnny "Mad Dog" Adair's Lower Shankill C Company faction and his former comrades in the UDA, who expelled him from the loyalist organisation in September. UDA sources blamed the attack on paramilitaries from the Lower Shankill.

Mr Stewart, whose family said he was not involved in any paramilitary organisation, is the nephew of a well-known loyalist in the north Belfast area. His aunt, Anne Darragh, said: "He wasn't involved in anything. He did not do anything wrong, he was an innocent bystander. He was just an easy target for them to get at and that was it. They don't care who they get."

Detective Superintendent Roy Suitters said the gunman, who was hooded and possibly wearing a green puffa jacket, made off in the direction of nearby Summer Street.

Speaking at the scene he appealed for information about the movements of a silver car with four people in it spotted in the area around the time of the murder. It was last seen turning into Oldpark Road, heading for the Crumlin Road junction.

Mr Suitters stressed that the investigation was at a very early stage and that a number of lines of inquiry were being pursued, but the loyalist feud was being looked at as a "primary motive".

"It's a loyalist area, it has all the hallmarks of a loyalist shooting," he said. He described the murder as "an execution which had brought more grief to yet another family in the area".

"This has got to stop", he added.

The rift within the UDA began in September when Adair, one of its most notorious terrorists, and his associate, John White, were expelled from the organisation after five other brigade commanders accused Adair of treason for allegedly siding with the hardline Loyalist Volunteer Force against another UDA member.

Last week police foiled a suspected plot to murder Adair as he picked up his children from school. There have also been attempted bombings of senior loyalists within the UDA leadership.